After setting up Meridian Films, Canada’s first commercial video production house, Julian Roffman took another crack at feature film directing, and the gamble was this unusual crime film that riffs the Leopold-Loeb murders wherein two beatniks murder a kid for kicks…
Review of KINO’s 3D Blu-ray and DVD editions of Julian Roffman’s The Mask (1961) + audio and visual podcast editions of bonus media / Editor’s Blog.
The Mask was Julian Roffman’s second attempt at feature film directing, having tried to kick start the Canadian film industry with a cautionary tale of social ills with The Bloody Brood (1959), a film also notable for being Peter Falk’s feature film debut…
Reviews of Silva Screen’s compilation series, featuring Music from the Transformers Trilogy by Steve Jablonsky, The Music of Michel Legrand, and The Music of James Horner, plus La-La Land’s complete presentation of James Horner’s Commando. Also: gorgeous Rue Morgue poster art, Julian Roffman’s The Mask + Guillermo del Toro in person at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, and David Cronenberg’s Shivers at The Revue. Sometimes I love my city. Sometimes.
Reviews of Silva Screen’s compilation series, featuring Music from the Transformers Trilogy by Steve Jablonsky, The Music of Michel Legrand, and The Music of James Horner, plus La-La Land’s complete presentation of James Horner’s Commando. Also: gorgeous Rue Morgue poster art, Julian Roffman’s The Mask + Guillermo del Toro in person at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, and David Cronenberg’s Shivers at The Revue. Sometimes I love my city. Sometimes.
Now Where Were We? Right. Let’s go back to LAST NIGHT (1998)
Don McKellar’s LAST NIGHT (1998) is the first review after a long pause in activities at KQEK.com
Gothic Steele: An Angel for Satan (1966)
Review of AN ANGEL FOR SATAN / UN ANGELO PER SATANA (1966), Barbara Steele’s last Italian Gothic, on Blu-ray from Severin Films
Spanish Giallo I: When a Cannibal is not a Cannibal, but When a Scream is Indeed a Scream
Severin Films showcases the work of Eloy de la Iglesia via two fine Spanish gialli entries: NO ONE HEARD THE SCREAM (1973) + CANNIBAL MAN (1972)
ArtScopeTO 10: Interview with Abstract Painter Donna Wise
For my occasional podcast series ArtScope TO, Abstract Painter Donna Wise discusses her unique techniques, and working during the 2020-2021 pandemic.
Podcast: Jason Pichonsky on Restoring Julian Roffman’s THE BLOODY BROOD (1959) + PHOBIA (1980)
Alongside a podcast with CanCon film historian Jason Pichonsky are revised reviews of Julian Roffman’s THE BLOODY BROOD (1959) + John Huston’s PHOBIA (1980), both from KINO Lorber / Unobstructed View.
Podcast: ANNE WITH AN E composers Amin Bhatia & Ari Posner
Podcast interview with ANNE WITH AN E’s composing team Amin Bhatia and Ari Posner.
Assorted characters collide and interact in the lead-up to Earth’s demise at precisely midnight.
BR: Angel for Satan, An / Un angelo per Satana (1966)
Had Barbara Steele remained in Europe – especially Italy – during the early 1970s, she may well have appeared in giallo thrillers…
BR: Cannibal Man / La semana del asesino / Apartment on the 13th Floor, The (1972)
Cannibal Man has a palpable crime-drama feel – the events unfold after daily title cards – and one can sense Hitchcockian sensibilities…
BR: No One Heard the Scream / Nadie oyó gritar (1973)
After the grisly thriller Cannibal Man (1972), Spanish auteur Eloy de la Iglesia opted for a far less graphic thriller which is part giallo…
DVD: Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films, The (2014)
Produced and released around the same time as Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014), the approach by director Hilla Medalia is a more authorized chronicle…
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